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Friday, February 01, 2013

Glimpses of My Hyderabad Trip

You may wonder why I’m always late in writing about my trips etc. Well the answer is quite simple — I love to go down memory lane, after a considerable time has lapsed. Recalling the happy times and the laughter, the shopping sprees and the lip-smacking food I enjoyed during a trip after a few weeks or a month has passed, gives a new high altogether. Anyways, that’s me! J Coming back to the Hyderabad trip I undertook during the last week of 2012— man, what a trip it was! Read on…

The Highlights:

The highlight of this trip has to be the awesome Hyderabadi food, particularly the Dum ki Biryani and the variety of non-vegetarian food (yeah I'm a non-vegetarian you see) you can savour. The list is endless, the food is amazing and the price — simply unbelievable. Throughout the 4 and a half days (sad! It was a very short trip.) we lived on shawarmas, kababs, and tikkas, apart from Biryani.

Places to eat: We ate shawarmas, kababs and tikkas only at Siddique Kababs and More, near Mehdipatnam. They specialise in kababs, tikkas and grilled food. And if you don’t believe my word about the prices, check their menu in Zomato.

Biryani: By now, all of you must have heard and read (if not eaten) a lot about the awesome Paradise biryani and other items in the menu. So neither I’ll bore you nor tickle your taste buds. :)

Though I had the privilege of eating Paradise biryani in Pune (carried all the way from Hyd by my sister-in-law’s husband) a dozen times, nothing can match the experience of eating it there. Plus you must try their gajar ka halwa and khubani ka meetha. And if you do not find find haleem too rich and heavy, you could taste that too.

Midnight Buffet at Orri’s: The buffet here is very good and the food as usual is quite good. I simple loved the Mirchi ka Saalan here. And yes you can eat here till 1 am or so. My hubby’s friend Su treated us here on his birthday on 30th Dec.

Shopping and Sight-seeing:

Shopping: If you’re on a trip to a shopper’s paradise like Hyderabad, can shopping be far behind? Nah.. no way! We went to the Madina Bazaar, near Charminar.

I bought the famous lac bangles (sadly forgot it at my hubby’s friend’s place, so no pics here), a set of pearl earrings and shapeless pearls necklace for my mother-in-law. There were beautiful junk jewelleries and I fell for it. Bought a nice red chunky necklace at 50 bucks (OMG! Right?) In addition, I bought 3-4 salwar kameez materials for myself. Of these, two materials are meant to tailor A-line anarkalis only.

The hubby bought a beautiful collared kurta and pyjama for himself. Surprisingly, beautiful printed sarees were being sold at throwaway prices and my friend bought two of these for herself.

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The Charminar

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Places of Interest: We visited quite a few places, but skipped the famous Ramoji Rao Film City, for one simple reason. Paying exorbitant entry fee to visit a huge complex full of film sets seemed pointless to us. However, we did go to Hussain Sagar, Lumbini Park, Golconda Fort and the beautiful Birla Temple.

Hussain Sagar is a lovely place to visit late in the evening. The large Buddha statue casts a serene and calm on you and the fountains add to the charm. There are lot of eateries here, but we did not give them a shot. On the 31st we were casually strolling and chilling beside the lake in the evening.

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A panoramic view of the Hussain Sagar

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Lumbini Park is a huge garden in the city and this made me wonder, why can’t we have such parks in Pune, instead of malls growing like mushrooms everywhere? A trip to this spark is refreshing to say the least. The only con is you have to wait in a long queue to buy tickets for the laser show. And being the holiday season, I guess the park was doubly crowded. So we skipped the laser show, which tell you the history of Hyderabad. Many say the show is amazing, but we simply lacked the patience to brave the crowd.

Talking about Golconda Fort delights me! Here’s why. We were driving from Mehdipatnamand I was lost in a conversation with my friend Sa. The road was deserted, clean, broad and nice. After a while Su stopped to know the direction. We were told to drive straight and I and my friend resumed chatting. A few minutes passed by and suddenly I noticed the surrounding change as we were engulfed by high walls all around us. My jaws dropped and wondered, how the hell did this happen? Later we figured that the fort’s boundaries are quite inside a locality, unlike other places where forts are in a secluded area, far from the city. So you don’t really know you’re nearing the fort beforehand. Cool na? You should make a trip here to see this.

The Golconda Fort is spread across 11 km in total. The amusing part is the way it is constructed. As we entered, we saw people clapping continuously. Later we learnt the story about clapping — if you clap when you are below the dome at the entrance, its echo can be clearly heard at the topmost pavilion ‘Bala Hissar’, almost 1 km away. Amazing is the word!

I loved the green parks with colourful flowers blooming inside the fort. There are a number of such parks, which are nicely maintained. You can relax and chat in these parks. Su told us that the light and sound show at the Fort should not be missed. And he was absolutely right! The show tells you the history of the Golconda Fort in a story and audio drama format. With Amitabh Bachchan as the narrator, the show is indeed quite interactive, particularly in describing the different parts of the fort. For example, when the Big B tells us where the ‘Bala Hissar’ is, he says “There, there it is…” and consequently the topmost pavilion beams with colourful lights.

The flowers in a park in Golconda Fort

The only 2 cons are – the audio at times is hardly audible and the mosquitoes compel you to walk out well before the show ends.

These were parts of the Fort, though they look like caves now.

The Golconda Fort,as the sun sets

Birla Temple: A new year was fast approaching and so visiting and praying at a temple was important. In every city, Birla Temples are almost alike, but in Hyderabad the location is superb. This temple is perched on a hillock, from where you can see the entire city and the Necklace Road. A very serene place, where devotes can sit and enjoy the ambience.